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NEW DELHI (UCAN) -- The Vatican press office has issued a call for disarmament in response
to India's recent nuclear tests, as Indian Church leaders denounced Hindus' proposal to
build a temple at the blast site. The two-sentence Vatican statement, issued in response to repeated queries
about the Holy See's position on the tests, called for "general and complete
disarmament" at the international level.
[...]
General secretary Giriraj Kishore of Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (VHP, world assembly of Hindus), told UCA News May 25 that the temple, to
be named Shakti Peeth (seat of strength), would be a religious monument to the nation's
power.
[...]
Christian leaders denounced the proposal,
saying that it was inconsistent with secularism and religious tolerance and that it had
political undertones.
The Pokhran temple plan constitutes "an
abuse of religion," said Father A. Suresh, secretary for ecumenism and dialogue of
the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI).
It is "ridiculous" to celebrate the
country's nuclear weaponization, Father Suresh told UCA News May 25...
[...]
In a May 23 statement, the Protestant National
Council of Churches in India (NCCI) questioned the government's wisdom in conducting the
tests and accused fundamentalist forces of making it a religious issue for political gain.
The NCCI said that political statements soon
after the tests "seemed to smack of hegemonistic tendencies towards our neighboring
nations."
"As the largest nation of the
subcontinent, we should be promoting peaceful co-existence and not be seen as a hegemonic
power," the NCCI statement said.
[...]
"The goddess of strength would not
like to have a temple at a nuclear site. It denies sound religious logic," said
Church of North India Bishop Karam Masih of Delhi.
The VHP move is meant to "proclaim
to the world that only Hindu might matters in India," Bishop Masih said, adding that
while the VHP has made the nuclear tests a religious issue, "there is nothing
religious about it."
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